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LIBRAR Y OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 




For the Boston Investigator. 
-V JUNIUS REDISCOVEllED. 
He EEArPi:.\iis ix 1775 ix Zxgland axd 

The last words 'addresse d by Junius to the 
people of England Avei'e these:— 

j "^ You are roused at last to a sense of your 
danger. The remedy will soon be in your 
pow;er. If Junius Iiyes, you shall often he 
■reminded of it. If when the opportunity 
^presents itself, ^^ou neglect to do your duty 
to yourselves aiid to j5osterity, to God and 
your country, I shall have one consolation 
deft, in common with the meanest and bas- 
jest of mankind— civil liberty may still last 
jthelifeof Junius." 

! This was published March 3, 1772, in the 
authorized edition of the Letters of Junius, 
(Dedication.) 

But the revolution Avhich he so sanguine- 
ly expected did not come, and Junius seemed 
to have retired forever. At all events, no- 
body but his publisher ever heard from him 
lagain, and then only upon mere matters of 
business. In a private -letter to AVoodfall, 
March 5, he acknowledges the receipt of two 
bound copies of the letters, and directs where 
to send two other vellum bound copies when 
ready. Again, May 4, he answers in four 
lines what he supposes to be a sign thrown 
out to him in the Daily Advertiser, by Wood- 
fall. 

Let no one be deceived by two other pri- 
vate notes, May 3 and 10, nor by a prior one, 
Jan. 2o, nor by the public letters signed Vet- 
eran, Scotus, Tell-Truth, and ]S"emesis,from 
.Jan. 28 to May 12, 1772.' Not one of them 
was written by Junius, though the publish- 
er may have been deceived by the clever 
counterfeiter, whose evident purpose wa^ 
in part, at least, to catch Junius at the coffee- 
house where packages were sent to him. See 
private letter, March 3. 

On the 10th of Jan., 1773, Woodfall re- 
ceived another and last private letter from 
Junius, as follows:— 

" I have seen the signals thrown out for 
[your old friend and correspondent. Be as- 
,sured that I have good reason for not com- 



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p?o3. 



■plying with them. In the present state of 
things, if I were to write again, I must be 
as- silly as any of the horned cattle that run 
through the city, or as any of your wise al- 
dermen. I meant the cause and the public. 
Both are given up. I feel for the honor of 
this country when I see that there are not 
ten men in it who will unite and stand to- 
gether upon any one questioji. But it is all 
— 1-' t\ - 4 alike vile and contemptible." 



,^7P^^- 



The opportunity had not yet presented it- 
self for Junius to fulfill his promise. Kor 
have I heretofore been able to discover that 
he began to fulfill it till Jan., 1776, when 
"Common Sense" roused the people of 
America to throw off the British yoke. — 
From that time till 1703 we all know how 
many reminders the people of England re- 
ceived from Thomas Paine, though they 
never suspected him to be Junius. 

But within the past month I have discov- 
ered a still earlier and more emphatic re- 
minder than " Common Sense " or any oth- 
er of Paine's numerous works. On the 14th 
of October last, Mr. J. Francis Buggies, the 
indefatigable Bibliopole, of Bronson, Mich., 
sent me this slip, cut from a catalogue of 
rare books: — 

" 283. The Crisis. Vol I., [all publish- 
ed,] containing xxviii. numbers. 12mo, pjD. 
23(3. London, printed, New York, reprinted, 
by John Anderson, at Beekman Slip. 1776; 

" The author of these Essays and Poems 
appears to have been a kind of little Junius, 
having all his intense venom and somewhat 
coarser invective, but without his pungent 
abilities. The principal object of his attacks 
would appear to be Lords Bute, Xorth, and 
Mansfield, not forgetting George III. He 
anathematizes that trio for their attempts at 
infringing upon the vested rights of Eng- 
.lishmen, and their unwarrautled and tyran- 
nical attempts to govern the British Ameri- 
can Colonies in violation of the law and the 
British Constitution, thereby causing the 
Colonics to resort to arms in defence ot" their 
sacred rights. He calls upon and urges the 
Americans to resist these minions of power, 
with an earnestness and a bitterness that 
sounds like enfuriated rage. The following 
passage may be taken as a specimen : — ' Ye 
conspirators against the liberties of mankind 
at St. James's, in St. Stephen's Chapel, the 
House of Lords^ or amongst the bench of 



jSiaj^uical Bishops, you must surely think 
I iliete is no God to judge, nor Hell to receive 
'you, or you never could be so far abandoned 
lis to stain your hands and consent to dye 
the Plains of America with the innocent 
' blood of her inhabitants.' — The volume must 
Ije of great rarit}-, as this is only the second 
copy that I have fallen in with in my re- 
searches, and they have been many and mi- 
nute. " Wm. Go wans." 

Xever having heard of a "Crisis" prior 
to Paine' s, whose publication began Dec. 23, 
1776, and ended Dec. 9, 1783, I went and 
asked Mr. Spofford, the Librarian of Con- 
gress, if he knew anything about it. '- Oh! 
yes," said he, " we have it. It is prior to 
Painc's and rougher in style." He then got 
the book for me, and I soon discovered that 
the most of the essays were evidently from 
the pen, not of " a kind of little Junius," as 
the late Mr. Gowans had guessed, but of the 
big Junius himself. 

AVithout letting Mr. Ruggles know anj-- 
tliing more than that the book was in the 
Congressional Library, I requested him to 
get the stray copy for me if he could; and I 
have now the pleasure of owning it. But as 
jit passed through Mr. Kuggles's hands, his 
' critical eye detected what mine had— that in 
jthe " Crisis " of 1775 (1776 being the date 
I of republication) Junius had reappeared pur- 
I suant to promise. 

' The American reprint of 1770 contains '2S 
numbers of a weekly series published in 
England in 1775. The publication began,, as 
I have since learnecl from another source, in 
Jan., 1775, and continued till after the mid- 
dle of July, 1776, making ninety-one num- 
bers in all, and ending with a republication 
of the American Declaration of Independ- 
ence, when the publisher announced — 

"We now IsLy down this paper, with grate- 
ful thanks to the public; and as liberty and 
virtue have taken their flight to America, 
the only asylum for freemen, we are deter- 
mined to follow, and not struggle in vain to 
animate our dastardl)^, degenerate country- 
men with the noble spirit of their forefa- 
thers." 

The American publisher intended to issue 



the second volume; but the following manu- 
script note in an English copy may account 
for the default: — 

" By order of the House of Commons burnt 
b}^ the common hangman." 

If a complete cojDy of Vol. II. can be 
found containing Xos. xxix. to xci. inclu- 
sive, I willpay twenty dollars for it. 

Only three of the 28 numbers are dated, 
and only 14 of them are signed. In the first 
number the Avriter announces that he has 
" fellow-laborers in the great work." That 
writer I believe is Junius. But the first es- 
say with a signature is Ko. YII., and that, 
strange to say, is signed ''Junius," who also 
contributes No. X. Both of these are ad- 
dressed to the Right Honorable Lord Aps- 
ley, Lord Chancellor of England, and the 
first, dated Feb. 16, 1775, begins thus:— "I 
was a byestander tJils day, when your Lord- 
ship and the House of Lords decided the 
very important cause of Philip Thickness, 
appellant, and Peter Leigh and others, re- 
spondents." Of course that Junius was not 
Paine, who had been in America some two 
months or more, but one of his local '• fel- 
low-laborers in the great work." He assails 
the Chancellor in the two numbers of the 
"Crisis" for an outrageous decision, and, 
promises in his next to " lay before the pub- 
lic some further traits in his Lordship's pub- 
lic and private life." But little Junius does 

, not contribute another next. I suspect he 

I was not secretive enough, and got caught 
and imprisoned. Falsely professing to be 
the real Junius, he foolishly exposed him- 
self to detection. 

. With ]S"o. XIII. appears the signature 
" Casca," who stabbed Ca'sar. This is cer- 
tainly Junius rediHvus. Casca signs also 
Kos. Xy., XYL, XYIL, XYIIL, XXL, 
XXIII. , XXI Y., XXY., and XXYL No. 
XXYII. is a Poem by " Cato," a new con- 
tributor, and No. XXAaiL, the last of Yol. 

I I., is " A Proclamation," by Thomas Shaw, 
(doubtless a fictitious name,) dated July 28, 

I 1775; and appended thereto is an address 



headed " God Save America," warning the 
British people against the lying report in the 
Royal Gazette, of the battle of the 17th of 
June, (Bunker Hill,) and concluding with a 
lament of the degeneracy and insensibility 
of Englishmen. 

. V JS'ow although some of these numbers 
•^ere undoubtedl}- written in England, yet I 
claim that the ten signed " Casca," and a 
few (perhaps as many more,) without signa- 
ture, were written in America by Thomas 
Paine. I claim this not only upon internal 
evidence of the most striking and positive 
character, but upon external proof equally 
remarkable and conclusive, which I will pre- 
sent in another article of the same length as 
this. Wm. Henhy Buee. 

Washington, (D. 0.,) JS^ov. 18,1880. 
JUNIUS IIEDISCOVEIIED. 
He REArPEARS in 1775 in England and 
America. [Concluded.] 

Four days after my first sight of the " Cri- 
sis " of 1775, as 1 was examining Shcrwin's 
Life of Paine (1819) on a question in no way 
connected with Junius, I read this note on 
page 45: — 

" In the edition of Paine' s Political Works 
recently published, there occurred an error 
with which it is proper the reader should be 
made acquainted. The article which is there 
inserted as the first number of the Crisis is 
not, from all I can collect, the production of 
Paine. A friend has lately favored me with 
a copy of the English Crisis, (a work entire- 
ly distinct from that written by Paine,) in 
w^hich I find the first number in the edition 
lately published, inserted verbatim under the 
signature of Casca. The error was copied 
in an edition published a few years ago by 
Eaton, in Newgate Street, [179G.] I have 
since seen several editions in all of which 
the piece is omitted. This shows clearly that 
it could not have been written by Paine, and 
its insertion in the edition published by Ea- 
ton can only be attributed to the ignorance 
of the person who furnished him the copy."- 

j This mysterious passage, contiiining an 
japparent reference to the " Crisis " of 1775, 
*' a work entirely distinct from that written 
by Paine," and a reference also to " Casca," 



-rl 



,*vho signed ten of the numbers of the "Cri- 
sis " of 17Y5, surprised me greatly. Biit I 
was still more astonished to fmd pencilled on 
the margin of the same page this note:— 

"It is by Paine, but does not helong to 
the ' Crisis.' It refers to Gen. Gage's proc- 
fT.^ ,^ P y :? ] lamation of July 17, 1775, and is entitled ' A 
l^*-^ ' ^' Crisis Extraordinar;/? The tirst number of 
the ' Crisis ' proper is dated Dec. 10, 1776. 
:^ either ifi the ' English Crisis^— it by that 
the writer means the English edition of the 
* Crisis ' published by Eaton in 1796 [which 
he does not] — ' a work entirely distinct from 
that written by Paine,' but simply Paine's 
works, with the omission of two or three 
lumbers, and the paper above referred to 
[i. e., 'A Crisis Extraordinaiy '] tacked on 
at the beginning." 

I went straight to the librarian to inquire 
who pencilled that note. " It is against the 
law," said an assistant to whom I first show- 
ed it, " to write in a book, and it must be 
rubbed ouL" " Oh! don't do that," said I, 
" it is too valuable." Then up stepped the 
chief librarian, who carries in his head a 
whole library, alcoved, shelved, indexed, and 
catalogued. " My clerk did that," said he. 
" Indeed! " said I, '' then please show me, 
if you have it, a copy of that English edition 
of Paine's ' Crisis ' containing 'A Crisis Ex- 
traordinary,' about Gen. Gage's proclama- 
tion." " We have it," said Mr. Spofford^ 
'- but.it has nothing to do with your Junius 
inquiry." " Let me see for myself," I re- 
plied; " here is ' Casca ' in the ' Crisis ' of 
1775, and I want to see how it happens that 
Paine writes, as you say, ' A Crisis Extraor- 
dinary,' and signs it ' Casca,' and it gets into 
an English edition of Paine's ' Crisis ' in 
1796." 

"Well, in a few moments Mr. Spofford pro- 
duced a volume of "Colonial Pamphlets,'^ 
the last of which was entitled •' A Crisis Ex- 
traordinary," 16 pages, dated Wed., Aug. 0, 
1775, signed CASCA; and another volume 
containing, among other things, 13 of the iC 
numbers of Paine's " Crisis," published in 
London by Eaton, 1796, with this same "Cri- 
sis Extraordinary " prefixed as Paine's "Cri- 



SIS?' No. I., and signed "AMERICAN C. S." 
0bjnimon Sense) I 

■ So, then, this " Crisis No. I.'- of Eaton's 
edition of 1796, which Sherwin argues is er- 
roneously attributed to Paine, is pronounced 
by the learned librarian of Congress to be 
[the work of Paine, who signs it " Casca," 
(and it afterwards goes into an English edi- 
tion of his works, while he is in Paris Avrit- 
ing a pamphlet on " The Decline and Fall 
of the English System of Finance," and his 
famous "Letter to George AVashington." Is 
lit not highly probable that Paine authorized 
Eaton to insert that " Crisis Extraordinary" 
as introductory to his later series, it being 
specially suited to English readers? At all 
events, he must have known of its insertion 
as one of his productions ; and it is a remark- 
able fact that Paine's " Crisis " No. X., dat- 
ed Oct. 6, 1780, was entitled by him " The 
Crisis Extraordinary." And Oldys in re- 
ferring to it in 1791 erroneously calls it -^ A 
Crisis Extraordinary." 

The identification of Ptiine as "Casca" 
by the all-searching librarian of Congress, 
who hitherto has withheld his assent to the 
claim that Paine was Junius, ought to have 
great weight with those who rely more on 
authority than on their own judgment or that 
of a humble student like myself. 

The internal evidence of the identity of 
Casca with Junius is stronger than that of 
Paine with Junius, because Paine, in his 
open life, had to conceal the great secret. — 
Arid while it is true that Casca is less pol- 
ished than Junius, this may be easily ac- 
counted for by the fact that Junius was com- 
pelled to maintain with credit his assumed 
character of a man of " rank and fortune," 
and he himself speaks of the labor bestowed 
on the composition of his letters. But Cas- 
ca, in his own little subterranean transatlan- 
tic weekly, striving to arouse the middle 
'cl^«s to revolution, needed no polish to his 
periods, and they are perhaps a little inferior 
jin style to Paine's acknowledged writings. — 
|Nevertheless, " the'briliant pen of Junius" 
is manifest both in Casca and Paine, and the 



'parallels between Casca and Junius anymore; 
frequent and palpable than between Painei 
and Junius, as might be expected. .;».-^ 

One of the strongest cliaracteristics of] 
Junius was hatred of Scotchmen. Only two ' 
allusions to the Scotch are found in Paine's 
works; first, in the original draft of the De- 
claration of Independence — ''Scotch and 
foreign mercenaries" — and secondly, in 
"Prospects on the Rubicon," 1787, where 
he alludes to the mistaken policy of concili- 
ating the Scotch by the house of Hanovei' — 
the only passage, by the way, in which Paine 
mentions Junius. But Casca abounds in 
scathing allusions to the Scotch, two of 
which are found in " A Crisis Extraordina- 
ry," unque^ionably written by Paine. 

Most of the persons assailed by Junius 
are likewise denounced by Casca, while those 
whom Junius praised are likewise lauded by 
Casca. And I tind no uneven parallel or in- 
compatible fact. 

Casca makes a single allusion to Junius in 

" Crisis " Xo. XA^II., an epistle in rhyme 

addressed to Lord Mansfield: — 

" Should ^alliuj? JuniiLS make a uew attack, 
(Whose lashes still are Hagrant ou your back,) 
The libeller by some stalKbloodhound trace, 
And let him feel the terrors of your place." - 

In the same epistle is this couplet: — 

" These lines inspired by Churchill's laurel'd shade, 
I write, unknown, unpatronized, unpaid." 

This is a most striking parallel. Junius 
absolutely refused Woodf all's proffer of one- 
half the profits from the sale of the author- 
ized edition of his Letters; and he wrote pri- 
vately to Lord Chatham : "Retired and un- 
known, I have only a speculative ambition." 
" Common Sense " first appeared anony- 
mously, and its author gave the copy-right 
to the Colonies. !N^or did Paine ever accept 
or receive the profits of his literary works. 
Another such parallel cannot be found in all 
time. Junius, Casca, and Paine all wrote 
" unknown, unpatronized, unpaid." • 

But without further citations of parallels, 
I will conclude with two quotations from 
" A Crisis Extraordinaiy." Beneath the cap- 
tion is a Latin quotation, with Casca's usual 



■ freelmislatioii, (exemplified in seven of his 
prior essays,) thus italieised by him. 

"Projicit ampuUas. Hor. 
On soids of slavery more thau death afraid, 
Gar/c -wrastes his pardons and his gasconade." 

The closing paragraph, capitalized by Cas- 

ca, is as follows: — 

" The die is cast in the great Divan (the 
wise council of this nation) and those who 
would RISE AGAIN to the. STATE and 
LIBEliTIES of E N G L I S H M E X must 
RISE through BLOOD. The parricides of 
the Constitution, General, are to be found 
in England, XOT IX AMERICA, nor can 
HAPPIXESS, PEACE, LIBERTY and 
LAW be now restored (unless Providence 
miraculously intervenes) but by ANOTHER 
REVOLUTION.-' 

And now a parting word to my esteemed 
Col. Ingersoll: I have challenged you to 
prove your assertion that Junius was "a 
coward and a sneak," and I have recalled 
the challenge until I could present this new- 
ly discovered evidence of the identity of 
Paine with Junius. If you still persist in 
your estimation of Junius,' how are you go- 
ing to meet the fact, which Mr. Spofford dis- 
covered before me, that Paine was Casca? — 
And does it not inevitably follow that if Ju- 
nius was " a coward, a calumniator, and a 
sneak," so was Thomas Paine? But you say, 
" Paine was not an unjust man." So say I. 
Nay, more. I know of no great historical 
character who combined in himself such 
brilliant genius, disinterested benevolence, 
* stern integrity, noble ambition, life-long per- 
sistency, and world-wide philanthropy, as 
the author of the Letters of Junius and the 
Declaration of Independence. 

..,^' W3r. IIexey Bukk. 

Washington, (D. 0.,) A^oy. 21, 1880. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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020 661 516 3 



